Star Wars The High Republic: Into the Dark

Short (Geode-sized) Review. Buy this book. Claudia Gray has spun another fun filled Star Wars Adventure. Highly recommended.

Expanded (Reath-sized) Review. When Disney and Lucasfilm Press announced the Star Wars: High Republic concept I was immediately intrigued because of the creative talent they were bringing together. From authors such as Claudia Gray and Charles Soule to concept artists like Iain McCaig (Designer of Darth Maul) and Phil Noto. Then I heard this new time period was set 200 years before the Skywalker saga and focused on the Jedi. On top of the talent and the time period we have a shared universe concept that crossovers novels, comic books and magazines. This sounded exciting and so far the everything is hitting on all cylinders for me including Claudia Gray's Star Wars: The High Republic: Into The Dark.

This novel continues with events taking place around The Great Disaster. While there are several books and comics weaving stories that take place around The Great Disaster the stories can all be read independently as they stand on their own. Although reading them all gives you a better sense of The New High Republic era. The references to characters from other stories is fun in the individual novels and comics for those reading all the stories you still get a complete story in this novel without reading any of the other books or comics. People can really pick up any comic or book and jump right into The High Republic.

What I want to start with for this novel is the characters. Claudia Gray does an excellent job of introducing us to and filling out a list of new characters. If us, as readers, don't care about and fall in love with the characters then the novel just won't work. We have to buy in and care about them for a novel to be memorable. Standouts for me where Orla Jareni; A Wayseeker Jedi. She's wise, independent and struggling with a second storyline that involves her past. Affie who gives us a human angle to the story. Reath Silas a Jedi I could relate to with his love of books and history. I have to commend Claudia Gray on how she writes Geode. How the other characters talk about Geode gave me several laugh out loud moments. 

The next element is story that's always moving forward. The novel doesn't drag because she always has the characters on the move. What I also love about these new stories is the atmosphere of the era. After reading stories in the dark times of the Empire it's refreshing to read about a time period that's hopeful. The villain's are also unique and mysterious. The Drengir and The Nihl are wonderful new additions to the Star Wars Rogue's Gallery. 

Lastly, I realize this is billed as a Young Adult novel but it doesn't feel that way. It reads to me like an adult novel but with a more narrow focus of characters and locations. Honestly if someone hadn't told me it was a Young Adult novel I wouldn't have known it. I hope you have as much fun reading this novel as I did. I was provided an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Claudia Gray writes a far more entertaining and easier to follow novel than the opener of the series, Light of the Jedi, with really fun characters, a great story that manages to be lengthy without overstaying its welcome, and really nice insights on this new era without it feeling like an onslaught.

More consistent than the last book, the highs didn't hit as hard, however, and there are still a few characters I have little interest in - Orla and Cohmac, namely.

Reath Silas is a really good character, I loved Affie, Leox, and the iconic Geode. The cast of characters is mostly wonderful, all interesting and fun.

Gray is a really tight writer. Everything feels purposeful. It's a damn good story with little to no filler. She absolutely takes the Stover approach of not saying any more than is needed.

But with the small little, not really ‘issues', but things that could be better, it still wasn't a total knockout for me. We're still in the early setting up stages of the big event, and we're lucky they got Claudia to write what could've easily been a really simple do-over of introducing the High Republic.

I had a great time! Pacing was excellent, I loved the variety of characters and settings we got. Overall just a fun romp through Star Wars High Republic Era universe.